This invention relates in general to the field of information management, and more particularly, to a information retrieval system and method.
Many people use information as part of their function within a business or other organization. It is often desirable to search for and retrieve information from one or more information sources. For example, one type of information source may include an inventory database containing information relating to products available for sale to a consumer. A person, such as a salesman or a consumer, may search the inventory database for products having attributes or criteria that the consumer is requesting.
A known technique for searching and retrieving information allows a person to construct a query using a series of terms or search criteria. However, this technique may not be suitable for locating information that may not exactly match the query search criteria. For example, a consumer may consider a particular product as an acceptable substitute for a product that exactly matches the search criteria of an inventory database query. However, additional queries may be necessary before information relating to the substitute product is available. Additionally, information relating to the substitute product may not become available unless one of the query search criteria specified by the consumer exactly matches information contained in the inventory database.
In accordance with the present invention, the disadvantages and problems associated with prior information retrieval systems and methods have been substantially reduced or eliminated.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a method for retrieving and scoring information from an information source includes receiving one or more search criterion and assigning an importance rate to each of the search criterion. The method also includes generating a search request using the search criterion, issuing the search request to the information source, and retrieving information from the information source in response to the search request. The method further includes determining an achieved importance value for each of the search criterion using the information retrieved from the information source and the importance rate assigned to each of the search criterion.
The present invention has several important technical advantages. For example, a search query may be constructed using weighted search criteria according to the relative importance of each of the search criterion. The information retrieved from the information source may be scored enabling a user to determine how closely the information matched the search query. Additionally, because the invention scores information that does not exactly match the search criteria, additional information that may be acceptable or helpful to the user of the invention is provided without performing additional search queries.